World-class art in Venice

From Titian to Tiepolo, the Accademia’s world-class collection represents the Golden Age of Venetian painting. A dazzling collection of masterpieces but also a voyage through the history of Venice itself.

Venice’s 400-odd historic scuole (schools) were established partly as religious institutions, partly as guilds. The six most powerful ‘Scuole Grandi’ commissioned the great artists of the day to beautify their headquarters, where today the artworks are still intact.

Of all Venice’s many churches, the huge, Franciscan barn-like Frari (1338-1469) is one of the most art-packed. It boasts the second-highest bell tower in the city and a severe exterior, but once inside, the quality of the art is extraordinary.

Way off-piste in northern Cannaregio, Madonna ‘of the Garden’ (1399-1473) is stuffed with paintings by the great Venetian master who is also buried here along with his son and daughter. A highlight is his beautiful painting of St. Agnes in the Contarini Chapel.

Magnificently located at the entrance to the Grand Canal, this vast pale – and unique – church was built in honour of St. Mary of Health in thanks for deliverance from the plague of 1630-31. The best artworks are in the Sacristy, most notably Tintoretto’s Marriage at Cana.

The little-visited Palazzo Grimani is one of the city’s great Renaissance palazzos, now a museum housing an extraordinary collection of classical sculptures, stuccoes, elaborate frescoes and paintings by Hieronymus Bosch.

American millionairess collector Peggy Guggenheim’s glittering display of avant-garde art is housed in her own 18th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal.

Japanese superstar architect Tadao Ando was brought in to convert Venice’s 17th-century customs house on the tip of Dorsoduro and 18th-century Palazzo Grassi into stunning exhibition spaces to house French billionaire businessman Francois Pinault’s vast contemporary art collection.

Weird-and-wonderful artworks and extraordinary architectural projects transform Venice into a surreal, ancient-meets-modern galaxy of contemporary culture for the summer months.